


Let Them Be Little

by DazzleYourMindsEye



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blake's Parents, F/F, Kali's POV, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Yang Xiao Long (mentioned) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23774935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DazzleYourMindsEye/pseuds/DazzleYourMindsEye
Summary: "No one so young should sound so utterly lost."Blake has a nightmare her first night back in Menagerie, and Kali had never felt so helpless.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 18
Kudos: 193





	Let Them Be Little

**Author's Note:**

> So this was just a little brain worm that I had to get out, as well as an exercise in writing for Blake's parents. Thanks everyone for reading!

Kali Belladonna sat bolt upright in bed, tall ears twitching restlessly.

Ghira grumbled beside her and she shushed him. She strained her ears harder, listening for the sound that had disturbed her.

There.

A muffled, choked scream.

Kali bolted out of bed in a blur and almost tore open the sliding door to the master bedroom. Panic burned like fire. **Blake**. She just got her back…

Blake screamed again and the familiar hallway around Kali went blank. She barely acknowledged a guard poke their head into the hallway, looking alarmed.

She reached her daughter’s childhood room and yanked the door open, a million and one scenarios flipping at lightning speed through her mind. Someone stealing her baby away, _again_ , someone hurting her -

Her daughter thrashed wildly in her bed, as if struggling to fight off an attacker. A quick glance around the room that Kali had been avoiding being in for the last five and a half years revealed no intruder and Kali let out a quick sigh of relief. But that relief was short lived as Blake let out a choked scream again, twisting in her sweat-soaked sheets. “YANG! NO! NO PLEASE -”

“Blake, Blake sweetheart, it’s okay, shhh...” Kali knelt by Blake’s bed and gently lay her hand on her forehead, frowning at the heat radiating from her daughter’s skin.

Kali gently swept her sleeping daughter into her arms, rocking her back and forth. It hardly mattered that Blake was a nearly grown young woman. Her baby needed her.

“Blake, Blake honey, wake up, it’s just a bad dream..” Kali shushed and soothed her as Blake whimpered and twisted against her mother’s grip.

Her husband’s thundering footsteps and low rumbling voice telling the gathered guards to move away, go check the perimeter, made Kali look up from her distressed daughter.

Blake gasped, and Kali’s gaze shot back down to her face. Blake had finally opened her eyes, but her pupils were blown wide, almost swallowing the amber color that Kali gave her. She shook and shivered, sweat beading on her forehead. And her breathing was still far too fast.

Kali felt her own eyes burn with unshed tears. Her daughter was in pain, fearful of invisible ghosts that her own mother could not protect her from.

That night Blake had disappeared had almost been the worst of Kali’s life. A rally had gone bad, and her daughter and husband got into a huge fight, an impassioned 12 year old Blake screaming at them for being cowardly and not doing enough and Ghira on the verge of losing his temper, eventually sending their daughter off to her room in a huff. Kali had found Blake in her room with angry tears flowing down her cheeks. She’d allowed Kali to embrace her, but Blake had always been so opinionated and stubborn and she rejected any and all attempts to soothe. Kali kissed her goodnight and told her that they would talk more in the morning and Blake had nodded sullenly. Blake was young and bold, she would eventually understand her fathers decision.

Kali had no idea that the last time she would see her daughter for a long time.

The discovery of Blake’s empty room the next morning, no sign of a struggle and an open window prompted a frantic search of the entire village as well as neighboring towns. The only thing that kept Kali from being so _angry_ at her husband, was Ghira felt just as bad if not worse than his wife. The eventual news that Blake had been spotted willingly boarding a ship to Anima with that Taurus boy made things more complicated. After that, they only got snippets of her movements from Fennec and Corsac. Blake had taken part in this train yard raid here, had been arrested there, was spotted in this town over here… each little glimpse they got of their daughter’s whereabouts Kali feared would be the last.

Ghira threw himself into his work on the island, improving Kuo Kuana’s schools and building infrastructure. Kali avoided Blake’s room at all cost, the memories of her last night in it too much to bear.

And then the news stopped.

“According to Brother Adam’s report, it appears that Blake has deserted the White Fang. Do not fear, he has noted that they are looking for her as we speak -”

_I’m not sure I want him to find her,_ Kali had thought, the venom in the words surprising her with its ferocity. Taurus had stolen their baby girl, poisoned her mind against her own parents. Who knew what else he had poisoned her with…

The report stayed the same for nearly a year. _No word yet if they had located Blake, but they were looking, you will be the first to hear_ … nothing but empty words.

Until one day while out at the market picking up vegetables for dinner, Kali happened to glance up at the large public projector screen, playing footage of the Vital Festival Tournament streaming live from Beacon Academy.

And froze.

Despite the unsteady camera and the fact that she hadn’t laid eyes on her daughter in more than 5 years, Kali instantly recognized her. Swift and agile as a shadow Kali watched in shock as her teenage daughter fought alongside three other girls, one of them a _Schnee_ , representing a huntsmen academy in a tournament broadcasted worldwide.

The basket half full with vegetables lay forgotten on the ground as Kali practically sprinted home.

Ghira sputtered half in disbelief and half in pride as they both sat on the couch enraptured by the holoscreen. Their daughter looked so grown up, almost effortlessly dancing around her opponents like they couldn’t touch her at all.

Kali drank in every inch of her daughter’s face. Looking for anything, any hint at all as to how she’s been for the last 5 years. Blake used to talk about maybe becoming a huntress when she was just a little girl, still filled with dreams of the future and being a hero. And now, Kali got to watch her daughter full filling that long forgotten dream.

But then things started to go wrong.

One of Blake’s teammates disqualified for breaking that poor boy’s leg in a clear act of aggression.

That young girl, torn apart on live television.

A woman’s voice, taunting the viewers for trusting in huntsmen and their governments. Cuts of footage taken from a rooftop of Vale being swarmed by Grimm, Atlas mechanical soldiers turning on civilians, fires breaking out across the city.

Then nothing.

Kuo Kuana’s small relay tower wasn’t very powerful (or even fully operational) to begin with, but now Menagerie was truly and completely cut off from the world, even more so than they were before. Ghira was visited by worried villagers at all hours about contacting loved ones on the other side of the ocean. He did his best to sooth them, but he couldn’t hide his own worry from his wife. To get this tiny, hopeful glimpse of their beloved daughter just to lose her again? It was truly cruel.

One day when Kali had finally managed to get her husband out of his office for a small midday meal there came a knock at the door. She waved off the guard and stood up to answer it herself, as an excuse to get up and move. Fully prepared to send off another disappointed villager.

But another disappointed villager wasn’t what she found on the doorstep.

Kali hadn’t stopped drinking in Blake’s face since the moment of her shy “hey mom”, like she wasn’t sure she’d be welcomed.

Her baby had grown into a beautiful, self assured young woman, but something was missing. Kali could see a few pale scars that weren’t there before, and there was something… _haunted_ behind Blake’s eyes. She flinched at loud noises and her ears swiveled, attuned to every little sound. She was cautious when entering rooms, her eyes flicking to every window and possible escape route there was. She never parted from her weapon, a battle scarred sword with a built in Dust gun (a marvel of engineering, and Ghira was clearly impressed when Blake admitted to have built “Gambol Shroud” herself).

Blake had clearly been through something terrible, and Kali couldn’t help the guilt that welled up inside. She was Blake’s _mother_. She was supposed to protect her little girl, keep a promise she’d made the very day Blake was born – small and helpless but still somehow strong. Announcing her arrival to the world with a healthy set of lungs and head full of curly dark hair.

Kali held Blake now like she did that day, soothing her tears and gently rocking back and forth. Blake’s shaking had calmed but her breath still hitched, and she actively clung to Kali with a surprisingly strong grip.

She felt Blake’s bed dip, and Ghira tucked one of Blake’s dark curls behind her ear with a gentleness that belied his large form.

“M-mom? Dad?”

“Sshhh, we’re here, sweetheart, it’s okay.”

But instead of Kali’s words soothing her, Blake buried her face in her mother’s shoulder, tears flooding back with strength renewed.

Kali looked helplessly up at her husband. Ghira looked just as lost as her.

“Go make some tea, we’ll be right out okay?” Kali said quietly to Ghira as she started to gently stroke the crown of her distraught daughter’s head, right between the pointed ears pinned flat to her head. Ghira nodded, still looking troubled.

Kali turned back to her daughter, a rumbling purr starting deep in her chest. Blake stilled and her sobs turned to sniffles as she pressed closer to the familiar sound. Eventually, slowly, like an engine that hadn’t been turned over in ages, a small unsure answer stuttered to life in Blake’s chest.

Kali squeezed her tighter, like she was daring the world to just try and wrench her baby girl from her arms again. She ran her fingers through her daughter’s soft hair and said in a low voice, “Do you want to talk about it?”

She felt Blake take an unsteady breath, then shake her head.

“Okay.” Kali gently stood up, pulling Blake to her feet with her. She snagged the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around her daughters shoulders, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Blake shuddered under her touch.

Kali led her daughter by the hand out to the living room, reminiscent of a time when Blake was much younger. Ghira had turned on a soft lamp and was in the act of setting the tea tray on the low table. Blake sat down heavily on the couch and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. Kali noted how the dark circles under her eyes seemed more prominent in the warm light of the room.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Kali poured out a cup of tea, pushing it into Blake’s hands. Blake took the cup without protest, staring down at the tea inside like she wasn’t seeing it at all.

Blake sighed and closed her eyes, and Kali suddenly saw how tired her daughter looked, like she had aged years before her parent’s very eyes.

“I was back at Beacon. During the Fall.” Blake’s voice was even, emotionless. “Not for the first time.”

Kali made eye contact with her husband and saw the dread mirrored back at her. She shifted closer to her daughter and gently put a hand on her arm. “Honey?”

Blake looked up at her mother with tired eyes.

“Who’s Yang?”

Blake stiffened, and the grip on her tea cup tightened. “Where..?”

“You were screaming it, honey. Did something happen?”

Blake looked back down at her cup, frowning. “She was my teammate.”

Kali thought back to watching her daughter fight in the Vital Festival on the holoscreen. The name did sound vaguely familiar…

“You mean the blonde girl right? The one that broke that boy’s leg?”

Blake’s head shot up and Kali was alarmed at the fire that was suddenly burning in her eyes. “NO! No she wouldn’t do that! It was a set up! Yang is kind and funny and sweet and… and...”

Tears welled up and spilled over Blake’s cheeks. “...and she got hurt because of me.”

Blake rubbed her eye, smearing the tears across her face. “She was _*hic*_ trying to protect me, a-and Adam, he -”

Kali watched her daughter break down for the second time that night, struggling to push down the climbing rage and horror. _Adam_. The next time she saw that bastard…

Blake seemed to forcibly pull herself together and set her tea cup back down on the tray, untouched. She sniffled and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. She seemed to almost shrink, the fire in her eyes extinguished like a dying ember.

Kali wasn’t blind, certainly not when it came to her daughter’s feelings.

“A-and she probably _hates_ me for it.” The complete and utter despair in Blake’s voice felt like someone had driven a dagger through Kali’s heart.

No one so young should sound so utterly _lost_.

“Blake, no, I’m sure she doesn’t...” said Ghira automatically, reaching out to rub soothing circles on his daughter’s back.

Blake took a deep breath. Kali felt her heart break even further as she watched her daughter’s face turn blank, like she’d slipped on a mask. “I’m going back to bed. I’m sorry I woke you.”

Kali thought that hearing her daughter in pain would hurt the worst, but this? This flat, emotionless _nothing_?

She didn’t stop Blake from standing up from the couch. Didn’t stop her from shuffling away back into the dark hallway. She paused in the doorway, but didn’t turn to look back at them. “Goodnight, Mom. Dad.”

And then she was gone.


End file.
